Monthly Archives: April 2018

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“Having a second clone is highly illegal, right?” “Well, so is murder, but that doesn’t stop people.”

Thought-provoking science fiction about trust, murder, and what it means to be human. Rafferty dumps the cast and reader right into the first crisis–blood and bodies floating everywhere who-knows-how-far from earth on a colonization ship with hundreds of sleeping humans and a brain-dead AI. What else could go wrong? Plenty.

“The greatest gift a creature can give another is that of sacrifice. Clones can’t sacrifice.”

Earlier this month, I began the process of finding all the Retro Hugo Finalists short fiction selections in various anthologies through my wonderful local libraries and the miracle of the modern world commonly known as inter-library loan (ILL for short). I requested the majority of the anthologies through my local home library in Lansing but the one I thought would have the least chance of fulfillment I requested through my other favorite library, the Kansas City Public Library. Two of the short stories finalists for the 1943 Retro Hugo were only available in an anthology which was last printed in 1980. I searched various websites that sell used books but as I suspected, any copies of Asimov’s The Great SF Stories 4: 1942 were hard to find and priced accordingly. I should not have been surprised when I received an email from KCPL letting me know my ILL was…

The subtitle tells it all: recycled. Not a bad story, but neither the story nor the characters are half as complex and engaging as in Karen Memory. Bear tried to compensate with the interplay among Karen’s female friends, but that felt forced, too. Even the antagonist is sympathetic and not very threatening.

“Deciding you know something when you don’t is about the deadliest thing a person can do.”

Lots of preaching, which also rehashes much of the first novel. Karen’s awkward syntax lacks the originality of the first opus, too.

“The advantage of being elderly is you don’t have to make the same stupid self-defeating decision the same way a second time.”

Another of the plethora of AI stories this Hugo year. This novella is marked by the great inner voice of a robot who has hacked his own command module and spends too much time watching the entertainment feed. Nice cover art.

“Lowest bidder. Trust me on that one.”

Since the entire story is told from the robot–cyborg, actually–point of view, Wells only gives the reader clues what’s really going on. The reader sorts it out alone with our protagonist.

“Maybe we should stop talking about it and start showing it. If you all want to reach under your seats, you’ll find there’s nothing there.”

Spielberg hasn’t lost his touch. Great fun; better than the book. A trip down memory lane for people of a certain age, a smash up of many pop culture references for others, and a heart-warming team action adventure for others. Lots of video images, violence and unreality because it’s about a virtual reality world.

A well-told short story about life on a generation space ship which has lost all its records of Earth. Nice story, but never made a point. Perhaps that’s why the younger generation couldn’t see the point.

“Maybe we failed these children already if they thought the past was irrelevant.”

(2018 Hugo short story finalist. Illustration is cover of magazine in which story appeared; has nothing to do with story.)

On the Waterfront meets A Christmas Carol as told by Karl Marx. A cautionary science fiction extrapolating an ocean level rise exceeding fifty feet. Well-developed ensemble of characters with interwoven plots. Lots of preaching. Three hundred pages of excellent story hidden among another three hundred of repetition and bombast. Lots of quotable epigrams.

“You think what you see is the totality.”

Make no mistake: Robinson has an agenda. Cynical view of almost everybody: politicians, cops, investment bankers, lovers, water rats. No, kind of soft toward the water rats. The humbler the character; the more sympathetic the portrayal.